Thursday, June 10, 2010

Seattle Slugfest 2010

It has been a tough spring, SO wet and cool. We had TORRENTIAL rain yesterday evening for a spell...sigh.... I have also had to do some replanting - the beans are either drowning or else the healthy, thriving crop of SLUGS is eating them before I can find them! The foxgloves are coming out now though - summer hope!

We planted a 5-way grafted cherry last spring and this year it looks like we may get a FEW cherries to taste. Thanks to my lawn-boy son, it is now a 4-way cherry though... oops! I already have it netted. I hear the birds attack as soon as the color shows!

My very first snap pea blossom! I have a LOT planted, a few in the front beds and 2 full rows in the semi-shady backyard bed. Last year they were very successful in early spring, so I planted an even bigger crop.

I tried broccoli for the first time this year, and the plants are big and gorgeous, but the heads are only the size of a baseball and smaller. Is this normal? The variety is Packman. I wonder if it's the lack of sun? We went ahead and harvested the center shoots already, since they were going to open up. Delicious! The most tender and flavorful broccoli ever! Nothing like cutting a crop and walking it straight into the kitchen and into the pot! Unless I can figure out how to get an individual plant to produce a bigger head, broccoli may just be a curiosity in my garden - one whole square for ONE serving of broccoli? Not very efficient.

Here are my zucchini, which I just transplanted out a few weeks ago - already blooming. My sis-in-law started them indoors in April. I have no idea if this is too early, but I am hoping to attract the bee action around the rhody blooms in the yard. Last year my zucchini were a BOMB. The plants did not thrive, and it bloomed but not one fruit set. This year I am trying: 4 plants instead of 2, deeper soil, and black plastic weed cloth mulch for heat. Hopefully, I'll be drowning in zukes!

I am excited for all the new varieties of plants I am trying for the first time: Delicata winter squash, cantaloupes and watermelons, Sungold and Better Boy tomatoes, 2 types of eggplant, broccoli... This is a year to experiment and see what is successful, space-efficient, and tasty. I already know that with this year's exceptionally cool and wet spring that some of the hot plants may need a retest next year, but we'll see how ripe they get - and pray for an Indian summer!

4 comments:

We have a market garden for the organic veggies we sell alongside our eggs, and even with full sun I've never gotten enough broccoli to make them worthwhile to grow...you'll get another few meals from side shoots though, so don't pull them out. :)

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My Grandparents have a market garden for the organic veggies we sell alongside our eggs, and even with full sun I've never gotten enough broccoli to make them worthwhile to grow...you'll get another few meals from side shoots though, so don't pull them out. :)

Welcome! I am an artist, "Square Foot Gardener," and mom. Thanks for coming by, and I'd love to hear from you! Although I haven't updated the blog in a while, I'm still gardening and I leave the blog up for reference.